HOWARD DANIEL'S NUMISMATIC DIARY AUGUST 2009

With so few of us Tuesday night, there was no talking over someone else's conversation so it was quite an easy time to participate instead of trying to keep track of two or three conversations going on at the table with the usual more attendees. We also received a solo singing performance from the restaurant owner. He sang an opera song with English words about the Washington Redskins and it was absolutely hilarious.

I was the only person to bring something and it was a book: Burma's Currency and Credit by Dr. U Tin Wai, Orient Longmans Ltd, Calcutta, India, 1953, 222 pages. It has a ton of little tidbits about many different types and varieties of Burma's financial instruments. It was a very lucky find from the bibliography of another book. I always look through every book's bibliography for possible other useful references. Every once in awhile, I find a treasure like this one.

I also brought a small Burma silver coin of 1852. The Rupee size coins of the series are fairly common but the minors were generally melted for jewelry. I bought it at the Los Angeles ANA for $6, which is about one-tenth its value. A nice find, and in better condition than the one in my collection too!

Traci Poole brought me a box of new archival quality two pocket pages for paper money and other pieces of paper. The pages are much wider than normal but I am pretty sure they will fit on my library and safe shelves. They are really, really much better than the PVC pages and I told her I will likely order about five more boxes so I have enough to lay out my next catalog and safely protect the paper items.

The LA ANA was not busy for most dealers but we in the club row in the back were busy! One dealer came over to me and told us we had more people at our tables than he and his neighboring dealers. This is not good! I gave out all of the references I brought and all of the 400 packets of coins, a note, and a flyer about my organizations.

The International Bank Note Society (IBNS) meeting I moderated on Saturday had a new record attendance of 33 people! It was a great meeting. The Numismatics International (NI) meeting that followed it also had many more than usual but not a record. The speaker was Everett Jones, "the" man in numismatics about chopmarked coins. He gave a fantastic talk and kept everyone there until we had to vacate the room.

I always have show and tell in the IBNS meeting I moderate because I want everyone to get to know the other people around them and what they collect. Many have connected with people with similar interests and I like to see everyone networked and not feel alone. I try to limit each person's time to one or two minutes but many have a lot to say.

With almost 30 people in the room for the IBNS meeting, I knew there would only be time for the show and tell and then the planned MPC Mini-Fest in the last 15-20 minutes, so I cancelled my talk about the military coupons used by the Chinese military after they invaded Vietnam in 1979 and used in the Sino-Vietnam War of 1979-80. But I did briefly mention them in the show and tell. Then more people arrived late and the total was 33 people, so the show and tell went on for quite awhile!

The MPC Mini-Fest was conducted by Colonel Bill Myers, who is in the active Army Reserve, and two tour veteran of Iraq as an orthopedic surgeon. He created special Military Fest Certificates (similar to Military Payment Certificates (MPC)) commemorating the 1942 Battle of Los Angeles. Right after WWII started someone thought there were Japanese planes coming to bomb Los Angeles and the anti-aircraft guns started shooting wildly into the air at nothing. There were no planes but it was a helluva night and there were several casualties from falling shrapnel of the anti-aircraft rounds. Everyone who stayed for the Mini-Fest received a MPC.

I contacted Everett Jones well before the ANA and asked him to be the speaker at the NI meeting. He agreed to speak about his chopmarked coin collection and his research. I picked out about a dozen chopmarked coins from my collection and circulated them through the dozen plus attendees (usually only three or four) while Everett talked and also circulated some of his pieces. I think several of the attendees will become collectors of chopmarked coins. I also showed a chopmarked Chinese banknote and told everyone that the Chopmarked Collectors Club (which Everett started) would add banknotes and other chopped paper to its interests. My first article to the club newsletter will illustrate the chops on about ten current US $100 notes. Chops are still used to authenticate currency!

	NBS (coinbooks.org) Web